Handbook topics 1. Foundations in safeguarding Foundations in safeguarding 2. Benefits and harm in sport Benefits and harm in sport 3. Stress regulation Stress regulation 4. Brain & body resilience Brain & Body resilience 5. Core values Core values 6. Look, listen & link Look, listen & link 7. Play-by-Play Play-by-Play

4. Brain & body resilence

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Brainsin both adult coaches and young players can be trained just like the body.

Safe and supportive sport helps young players to calm their stress responses and, over time, can help them develop new and more adaptive response patterns to challenges they encounter, both in sport and life.

Coupling sport/physical activity with regular wellbeing routines multiplies the positive effects of both on the brain, strengthening higher brain functions like reasoning and helping to regulate stress. Wellbeing routines are like ‘brain and body exercises’ in daily life, to reinforce the positive experiences young players have when they engage in safe and supportive sport.

  • Learn to play an instrument
    Learn to play an instrument
  • Start a photography account on social media
    Start a photography account on social media
  • Practice painting
    Practice painting
  • Listen to your favourite band or podcast
    Listen to your favourite band or podcast
  • Write a story
    Write a story
  • Join a dance class
    Join a dance class
  • Mindfulness meditation
    Mindfulness meditation
  • Yoga
    Yoga
  • Visualisation meditation
    Visualisation meditation
  • Walking meditation
    Walking meditation
  • Breathing exercises
    Breathing exercises
  • Tai-chi
    Tai-chi
  • Sports and games
    Sports and games
  • Cooking and sharing meals
    Cooking and sharing meals
  • Gardening or plant care
    Gardening or plant care
  • Crafting or diy projects
    Crafting or diy projects
  • Book clubs
    Book clubs
  • Goal-setting journaling
    Goal-setting journaling
  • Outdoor activities
    Outdoor activities
  • Reflective journaling
    Reflective journaling
  • Gratitude journaling
    Gratitude journaling

4.1.  Rewiring brains through mind & body routines

Neuroplasticity refers to the brain’s lifelong ability to change, adapt, or grow new neural networks in response to learning and experience.

This ability of the brain to create new pathways is particularly strong in early childhood when infants and young children are learning and growing at a rapid rate, and again in adolescence. So, engaging young players throughout adolescence in wellbeing routines is especially powerful for protecting and promoting their mental health and wellbeing, and can even reverse negative impacts of previous life experiences. The brain’s ability to change and adapt continues throughout our lives, so it is never too late to train our brain.

“Neurons that fire together, wire together.”

Global Wellness Intitute
WHITE PAPER OF THE MENTAL HEALTH INITIATIVE

Train the brain

The brain can be trained like any other muscle in the body. Watch this video to see how it works.

What does this mean for my young players?

  • How could you introduce ‘brain and body’ wellbeing routines to young players? 
  • Could you incorporate wellbeing practices in warm-ups and cool-downs?

Looking for well-being activities and routines for young players? Download this sample activities.

Download

4.2. coaching the coaches

Coaching is rewarding, wonderful, but often challenging work

Coaches carry a responsibility for the safety and well-being of all young players – and that responsibility can feel heavy when young players are coping with displacement and other adversity. A young player may share sensitive information with a coach that is painful to hear – or that touches on a coach’s own previous experiences. Some coaches themselves are affected by displacement. The reality is that coaches have tough days too. It’s not always easy to show up as our “best selves” in the midst of all life’s demands and challenges.

Coaching is rewarding and fulfilling, but it can also be challenging and tough at times. Interact with this module and discover ways to build stress resilience for sport coaches.  

Coach self-care

Team-care

Support & supervision

Stay healthy and care for your wellbeing

  • Limit alcohol, caffeine, nicotine.
  • Schedule and take breaks.
  • Connect with loved ones.
  • Get enough sleep.
  • Use holiday time to relax and unwind.

Care for and support fellow coaches:

  • Set up rituals and celebrations.
  • Check in regularly with each other.
  • Develop buddy systems.
  • Keep regular working hours.

Personal and technical support and advice:

  • Technical supervision for challenging situations.
  • Peer support and supervision for ongoing coaching.
  • Confidential personal support for wellbeing.

Wellbeing activities

Visit the website of IFRC PS Centre to put into practice more wellbeing activities and routines for young players.

Trainers and participants during the Sport Coach+ training of trainers in Bucharest, Romania. © Sport Coach+

“A dysregulated coach cannot help regulate a dysregulated player”.

Megan Bartlett
CENTER FOR HEALING AND JUSTICE THROUGH SPORT

Self-care is essential to provide safe and supportive sport

To effectively support young players affected by displacement and other adversity, coaches also need regular and routine ways to manage stress and to build their own ‘stress resilience’.

As someone young players look up to, coaches set the tone and atmosphere for the sport environment. A coach who is aware of their own stress and has positive and effective ways to regulate it, can model stress regulation for young players and create a safe and supportive sport environment.

Self and team care for coaches is not just a good, common-sense thing to do, it’s an essential responsibility for coaches in providing safe and supportive sport for young people affected by displacement.

What does brain and body resilience mean for me as a coach?

First think about your own wellbeing routines as a coach. Is there something you like to do that you could do more regularly or something new you would like to try?

Now, make an honest assessment of your readiness to work in safe and supportive sport with young players affected by displacement:

  • What stresses are happening in my own life, and how am I coping?
  • Am I mentally prepared and able to be present with my young players today?
  • What can I do to calm myself or get mentally ready for today?
  • What support is available to me?

References

  • (1)IFRC Reference Centre for Psychosocial Support (PS Centre) (2014). Moving Together: Promoting psychosocial well-being through sport and physical activity. 25-30. Retrieved from https://pscentre.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Moving-Together_English_low.pdf

  • (3) For more detailed guidance on promoting inclusion see IFRC Reference Centre for Psychosocial Support (PS Centre) (2014). Moving Together: Promoting psychosocial well-being through sport and physical activity. Retrieved from https://pscentre.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Moving-Together_English_low.pdf

  • (7) Adapted from Centre for Healing and Justice Through Sport (CHJS). (2020). Coaching Girls Guide: How to Get (and Keep) Girls Playing; Strategies for Engaging and Retaining Girls in Sport. Retrieved from  https://chjs.org/resources/how-to-get-and-keep-girls-playing/

  • (4) Adapted from Centre for Healing and Justice Through Sport (CHJS). (2023). Nothing Heals Like sport: A new playbook for coaches. Retrieved from https://www.canva.com/design/DAFisvSIRbQ/Bbyzu_hpUhOJIr2NrPhK6A/view#46

  • (6) The EU funded ASPIRE programme has multiple resources to support the creation of opportunities for the participation of refugees in sport and in community life through sport, including overcoming verbal language differences. See ENGSO. ASPIRE – Activity, sport and play for the inclusion of refugees in Europe. Online training course. Retrieved from ASPIRE – The European Sports NGO (engso-education.eu)